2023 Blind Spot Series: Happy Together

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What I knew going in: That it features frequently on many "Best LGBTQ+ movie lists"

A couple, Lai Yui-Fai (Tony Leung) and Ho Po-wing (Leslie Cheung) decide to leave Hong Kong and take a trip to Argentina to "start over" with their relationship. They only find themselves drifting further apart.

1997 is a bit early for my typical Blind Spot picks but this is a film that has sat in my watch list for years. Probably since I started blogging in the first place. One thing or another always lead to me putting this on the back burner. Now I finally hit play on HBO Max.

This movie is the definition of "I don't know how to quit you." Yui-Fai and Po-wing are just not meant to be, despite how much they fight it. At first it's very easy to blame Po-wing as the problem, then Yui-Fai comes in with some pettiness of his own. I like that even though Yui-Fai is our narrator and primary protagonist, he still had his faults.

If you read the IMDb trivia about this movie, it tells you that writer director Kar-Wai Wong rewrote this several times and didn't seem to have an endgame in mind when he started shooting. I didn't get the feeling of that at all while watching. The story made sense, and didn't feel spliced together. The only parts that did were some cinematography choices. The film jumps back and forth between black and white and color and I don't think it really works. Especially when the color cinematography is so vivid. It captures the filthiness of it all in a way the black and white doesn't. They don't have enough money to return to Hong Kong, so we watch Yui-Fai scrape by at a few different jobs. It's a hard way to live.

The leads of course are wonderful. I'm not as familiar with the late Leslie Cheung's work as I am Tony Leung's. But he was very good as the free spirited, volatile Po-wang. Yui-Fai is much more melancholy and I loved Leung's performance. Chang Chen has a small supporting role, that apparently wasn't even in the original screenplay but ended up being one of my favorite parts of the film. He does very well too.

Despite being named "Happy Together" I did not leave his feeling happy. It's a sad film about how some relationships just don't work out. But it does leave you with a bit of hope at the end, which is really all we could ask for. It's very well made.

Grade: A-

Comments

  1. thevoid99February 15, 2023 at 3:31 PM

    Oh man, I fucking LOVE this movie. It is so beautiful and heartbreaking as it made me want to go to not just Buenos Aires but also the Iguazu Falls as that film has a very profound influence on Moonlight. That was something I noticed about in that film as I was like "that's from Happy Together" as I knew Barry Jenkins is a fan of WKW. I need to get the Blu-Ray on this film though there's been many complaints about the Criterion box set release on the WKW films largely because of some of the aspect ratio changes in one of his films that he did.

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    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 16, 2023 at 10:44 AM

      I can definitely see where Moonlight would've taken some inspiration from this. I need to watch more of WKW's films. Now I also want to re-watch Lust, Caution for Tony Leung. lol

      Delete
    2. thevoid99February 16, 2023 at 4:10 PM

      Oh I know why you want to re-watch that movie. I saw that at an arthouse theater (that is now no more) as there was myself and a few other people but... goddamn those sex scenes were HOT!!!!

      Delete
    3. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 16, 2023 at 4:41 PM

      It's funny, I remember not liking it! I think it was the ending that put me off, but I think I'd do better with new eyes.

      Delete
  2. joel65913February 17, 2023 at 8:06 PM

    I'm a bit late getting to this but that's because this is one of your Blind Spots that I hadn't gotten to but has been on my list for years as well. So I tracked it down and watched it finally.

    I liked just fine but nowhere near loving it. This one watch will do me.

    I'm glad I didn't read the comments first since now that I did I saw the reference to Moonlight. I HATED that movie!! Had I gone on that I probably wouldn't have watched this.

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    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 19, 2023 at 10:37 AM

      I'm glad you didn't either lol. I love Moonlight though, but I'm glad you watched this!

      Delete

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